I don’t know if I’m just becoming overly sensitive to my own language or if this is an actual issue, so feel free to let me know if it seems that I just need to grow thicker skin, but still.

I keep getting this uneasy feeling whenever I use the word “lame” and I think it’s because I’m starting to realize it’s technically ableist. However, there’s no single non-profane word that I know of that fits the niche that I use it in.

For example, I wrote out something earlier about a behavior I do that I don’t like that I do because I think it’s kind of shitty behavior, but it’s overall harmless. I use lame to describe it casually. I could also call it kind of shitty, as I did before, but not to audiences that I don’t want to use profanity around.

Anyone know of a word I can replace “lame” with?

I’d say maybe weak, but that’s got its own baggage that I’m not sure I’m ok with switching to. Annoying is too strong of a word for what I’m going for. Maybe lame is a short word for “this makes me feel slightly sad”?

Idk, so I open it up to the public: Is this even an issue or am I being too sensitive? Could this be solved in a single replacement word or do I need a whole ass phrase to express this?

  • jarfil@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    The story of “hysteria” starts at around 2000BC, in ancient Egypt, when they thought the uterus was a sort of “animal” that could wander around the body. At least it had an easy symptomatic solution, not exactly a penalty for the women reaching “paroxysmal convulsions”, and it devolved into the invention of the vibrator, with its cheap hand-cranked version, and poor Hitachi unable to separate its brand from the wand no matter how much they try. With a sad irony, it did play a role in the eugenics… hysteria? of the 19th-20th centuries. The film by the same name, may have painted a slightly different picture.

    I didn’t know of “excited delirium”, and apparently the term has been withdrawn, it’s “hyperactive delirium syndrome” starting this year… remains to be seen whether it keeps targeting tased black males in restraints (damn, the US has a big problem).